There is an ongoing effort in many industries to lighten the weight of articles. In many instances, this is achieved by the selection of materials that have a lower density, thinner section thicknesses or both, as compared with prior materials or structures. As a result, there is a potential for the weakening of articles, and the consequent need for structural reinforcement.
In the field of automotive vehicle manufacturing it is common to employ structural reinforcements within cavities of the vehicle body structure. For instance, it has become common to employ within a cavity of the vehicle body structure a relatively rigid molded polymeric carrier that carries an activatable material on one or more of its outer surfaces. For certain activatable materials, upon being activated (e.g., by the heat from a coating bake oven), the activatable material can expand and bond to a surface defining the cavity.
In order to selectively control the properties of the article reinforcement structure, it has been taught to use hybrid reinforcement structures that include a combination of multiple materials for the carrier. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 8,430,448, hereby expressly incorporated by reference for all purposes. See also, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Application No. WO 2010/054194, hereby expressly incorporated by reference for all purposes.
In the automotive vehicle industry, the use of computer modeling (e.g., finite element analysis) has been employed for simulating a vehicle crash, and for modeling how a particular section of a vehicle will respond to the crash.
Notwithstanding the above efforts there remains a need for alternative carrier structures. For example, there remains a need for alternative carrier structures that employ a combination of different materials that, even though they are dissimilar, are still generally compatible (e.g., chemically and/or physically compatible) with each other so that they can be joined together without the need for an adhesive. There also remains an ongoing need for alternative carrier structures that employ a combination of different materials that each contains a substantial polymeric portion (e.g., a non-metallic portion) so that weight savings can be attained. There also remains an ongoing need for alternative carrier structures that employ a combination of different materials that join together at an interface region that is generally continuous with the portions of the carrier defined by the different respective materials. There also remains an ongoing need for an alternative carrier that can employ one or more localized reinforcement regions by use of a particular material within the carrier, and which may be achieved in the absence of a need for a structural feature (e.g., a rib) for imparting the localized reinforcement.
Examples of composite structures are illustrated in PCT Application No. WO 2007/008569, United States Published Patent Application Nos. 2011/0039470 and 2012/0251863, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,581,932 all incorporated by reference for all purposes. See also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,855,652 and 7,318,873, and United States Published Patent Application Nos. 2003/0039792, 2010/0289242, 2011/0278802, and 2009/0202294, incorporated by reference for all purposes.
The present application claims the benefit of the priority of Great Britain Patent Application No. 1318595.4, filed Oct. 21, 2013, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/916,884 filed Dec. 17, 2013, the contents of these applications being hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.